


Peppermint

by moonflowers



Series: Harringrove Holiday Prompts [4]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Christmas, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, Holidays, M/M, Post-Season/Series 03, Soft Boys, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:54:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21693370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonflowers/pseuds/moonflowers
Summary: Steve wonders if he should just take a chance.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Series: Harringrove Holiday Prompts [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1211943
Comments: 12
Kudos: 157





	Peppermint

**Author's Note:**

> The Harringrove Holiday Exchange has once again been kind enough to supply us with a list of holiday prompts, and honestly I think it would be rude of me not to fill a few of them. So this is for number 4, peppermint, in case that wasn't obvious.  
> (The previous three fics in this collection were from last year.)

Steve still wasn’t quite used to hanging out at the Hargrove house. Well, he guessed more Mayfield than Hargrove now; with Billy’s dad gone and his stepmom going back to her previous name, Billy was technically the only Hargrove there. It was just the two of ‘em, slouching around in the sitting room and watching whatever happened to be on TV, Billy chewing on the candy cane Max had flung at him before she’d left. The heating was on full, the room thick and dusty with the artificial heat it was pumping out, leaving Steve lightheaded and a little sweat-sticky under his shirt. Billy looked comfortable though, in old basketball shorts that pulled tight across his thigh when he tucked his leg underneath him, and a blue sweater with the sleeves tugged down over his hands. He hadn’t needed to explain to any of them why he hated the cold that bit more since the summer.

With the holidays getting closer, apparently Max’s mom had finally started taking the other moms up on their offers of book clubs and coffee mornings and whatever else they did while their kids were at school. Mrs Wheeler had invited them carolling, which honestly he couldn’t imagine Max or Mike going along with without a fight, but he expected they’d slope off to the arcade the first chance they got. When Max had asked them to come with, Billy had smiled at her sweetly and said –

“I’d rather get possessed again, Maxine. But thanks.”

She’d only rolled her eyes and thrown the candy cane at him before she and her mom finished wrapping up warm and shuffled out the door.

When another ad break loudly announced itself, Steve realised he wasn’t really paying attention to the TV anymore. Instead, he was paying attention to where Billy’s toes were digging into his leg, and the way he’d huff and toss his head when his hair tickled his nose, all gold and mussed from lazing around on the couch with Steve all afternoon. Instead, he watched light from the screen flicker on Billy’s face as he sucked and crunched on the candy cane, frowning slightly in concentration.

Things were easy between them now. Billy had come back less angry – which Steve still wasn’t sure made sense – and once he’d stopped trying to shove Steve’s attempts at talking to him away, they’d somehow become best buddies. Steve was used to the sound of him; his deep laughter, his terrifyingly loud sneezes, coughing from too many cigarettes and a monster busting his lung, the way his voice went rough when he was sleepy. The smell of him; hairspray and leather, the sickly-sweet smell of the lollipops on his breath now he couldn’t smoke anymore, hot skin and clean sweat.

He hadn’t figured out how to tell him yet; that he… y’know. _Liked_ him. But then, they were both ‘do now think later’ kinda guys, so maybe he’d just lay one on him and hope he didn’t get sucker punched for it. But he didn’t think so. They’d been on the edge of _something_ for weeks, dancing just out of reach, not just friends anymore. And even if by some horrible chance he was wrong, he didn’t think Billy’d hit him for it, not now.

“What is it?” Billy was still watching the TV, frown deepening as he aggressively picked candy cane out of his teeth.

“Huh?” Steve blinked himself back to reality.

“You’re staring, Harrington,” he said. “No one ever tell you it’s rude?”

“Oh.”

Billy did look at him then, eyes blown big and wide in the dim light, waiting on Steve to give him a real answer. The sun-freckles on his nose had almost faded away completely with winter. Steve only knew they were there because he was looking for them. He was impatient for summer to roll around again already, so the two of them could lounge around by Steve’s pool, pass beers back and forth and chat shit, maybe drive the kids out to the lake, or into the city, sit together in the low summer sunsets and watch the freckles come back on Billy’s cheeks. He wanted what they could have had last summer if one of them had pulled their head of their ass and said something, if Starcourt hadn’t happened, if Billy hadn’t been – _shit._ Steve was about to throw any remaining uncertainty to the wind and kiss him before the moment was gone, but Billy beat him to it, stretched up from where he was slumped deep into the couch cushions to press his mouth to Steve’s.

By the time Steve had snapped out of his surprise and started to kiss him back, Billy was pulling away again, leaving Steve to lean down after him, mouth slack and struck a little dumb. He licked his lip, sweet and a bit sticky from Billy’s candy cane.

“You taste like peppermint.” he said quietly, more to himself than to Billy, but whatever.

“Oh Jesus,” Billy snorted, eyes crinkling up in a smile.

“What?” Steve said, a little ruffled and honestly, still not quite sure if he’d imagined Billy’s mouth on his or not.

“I always knew you’d say something fuckin’ dumb right after I kissed you,” he shook his head gravely, ruined by the smile he was trying to hide, “and you sure didn’t disappoint, pretty boy.”

“Wait,” Steve bit back a smile of his own at the implication, “you’ve been thinking about it?”

Billy looked caught out for a fraction of a second before he smothered it under a blasé little twisty shrug. “Yeah. You mean to tell me you haven’t been thinkin’ about planting one on me too?”

He had. It would be a lie to say it hadn’t been the number one plot of his daydreaming recently. He reached over to tug gently on the curl falling down Billy’s forehead. “Maybe.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Billy said, crowding up into Steve’s space again, all warm skin and peppermint. “You wanna give it another go?”


End file.
